United to raise ticket change fee by $50
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United Airlines is raising the fee it charges if you want to change your ticket. The fee goes up from $100 to $150.
This is the fee paid whenever you want to alter anything about a non-refundable ticket. And if the new ticket you’re looking for comes in at a higher price, you still have to pay the difference on top of that.
While it’s a sizable jump, I’m not as irked by this fee as I am by other fees. It’s a “per-use” fee, affecting only those passengers who need to avail themselves of its terms. Sure, it would be nice if there were no such fees. But it would be nice to have a pony, too. (Well, maybe the pony isn’t such a hot idea, now that I think about it.)
The airlines are obviously looking for ways to pull in some revenue. With oil getting close to $120 a barrel, they have to pay for that fuel somehow. Multiple price hikes are one way, but fees for luggage, skycaps, aisle seats, and itinerary changes are several others.
The $64,000 question remains: At what point does air travel become too expensive for travelers, both business and leisure? At what point do airlines’ price and fee hikes kill demand? We’re not there yet, but I have the sense that we’re getting closer. And if demand dies, we’ll see some more bankruptcies, for sure.
(Hat tip to Benet Wilson!)
Update: It’s confirmed.
Bonus nugget in the linked article: UA is also re-introducing the Saturday-night-stay requirement for many fares, which adds restrictions to cheaper fares. Oh well. What was I just saying about demand?
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April 20th, 2008 at 10:42 pm |
I think the uber-question is when are we going to have an energy and fiscal policy that deals with the rising cost of oil. Obviously the cost has a lot to do with the plummeting dollar, but also with the price controls from OPEC and the slavery we have to them due to no energy policy. This isn’t about hybrid Pratt & Whitney engines, but about decreasing demand in other areas so that the price goes down for those sectors that can’t get off oil. November cannot come soon enough. I won’t even say who to vote for, but just that “any” change at this point has got to be a good one.
April 20th, 2008 at 11:45 pm |
Funny, I didn’t even know they had eliminated the Saturday night stay requirement. Not a big deal for me; I tend to always travel over a weekend as it’s usually leisure travel (gotta work during the week).
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 pm |
Funny - I’ve come to the same fee with US Airways (In the NE, they usually bottom out as the cheapest - sometimes Southwest is comparable though) and they start this junk about fees on top of price. What I usually do is just buy the one way fare back as most of my destinations have a cheaper one way fare than the change fee (too, I don’t worry too much as I’m usually traveling on business…).